Nov 6, 2023
Obama Has ONE Word For The Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza
Former President Barack Obama detailed how all Americans are complicit, including himself, for the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Hamas, calling it 'unbearable.'
- 10 minutes
What is also true is that
the the occupation and what's happening
to Palestinians is is unbearable.
There are people right now who are dying,
who have nothing to do
[00:00:21]
with what Hamas did.
That was former President Barack Obama
weighing in on the brutal airstrikes
that have been killing innocent
civilians in the Gaza Strip,
drawing attention to the unbearable deaths
of these innocent Palestinians.
[00:00:37]
Now, Obama made these statements
during an appearance on Pod Save America.
Here's more of what he had to say.
What Hamas did was horrific,
and there's no justification for it.
And what is also true is that.
The occupation.
[00:00:58]
And what's happening
to Palestinians is is unbearable.
If you want to solve the problem,
then you have to take in the whole truth.
And you then have to admit.
[00:01:17]
Nobody's hands are clean. That.
All of us are complicit to some degree.
I look at this and I think back, what
could I have done during my presidency
to move this forward as hard as I tried?
[00:01:35]
I've got the scars to prove it,
but there's a part of me
that's still saying, well, was there
something else I could have done?
That's the conversation
we should be having.
Not just looking backwards,
but looking forward now.
Typically, when a former president
comes out and says something
[00:01:51]
that seems provocative or courageous, I'll
be critical of them because it's like,
hey, where was that courageous attitude
when you were in charge?
But to be fair to Obama, he actually
had a notoriously frosty relationship with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
because he was one of the few presidents
[00:02:11]
who of American presidents who was willing
to demand that Netanyahu pump the brakes
when it came to illegal settlements
and when it came to any brutality
toward Palestinian civilians.
And he also bumped heads
quite a bit with Netanyahu when he secured
[00:02:28]
the Iran nuclear deal, which I'll give you
more details about in just a moment.
Netanyahu did not want
an Iran nuclear deal.
Netanyahu has always been thirsty
for war with Iran, and of course,
not to fight that war with just the IDF,
but to pressure the United States
to involve its own military in that war.
[00:02:45]
So here's a video just kind of summarizing
some of the issues they had
when Obama was in charge.
Analysts say President Obama
and Israeli Prime Minister
- Benjamin Netanyahu despise each other.
- There's a fundamental sense of mistrust.
Former State Department insider
Aaron David Miller calls the relationship
[00:03:02]
the most dysfunctional ever.
Each side thinking the other is
ignoring their interests.
I think the president looks at Netanyahu.
He doesn't feel that there's
much respect for American interests.
And the prime minister looks at
the president and considers him bloodless
[00:03:18]
and insensitive when it comes
to really understanding Israeli needs.
Remember that supposed to be private
exchange between the then French president
and Obama in 2011,
Sarkozy saying, I cannot bear Netanyahu.
He's a liar. Obama responding.
But I have to deal with them
even more often than you.
[00:03:35]
But look, it wasn't just Obama
who had deep issues with Netanyahu.
So did Donald Trump.
You've probably heard that Donald Trump
and Benjamin Netanyahu,
or Bibi, as he's called, were best buds,
that it was a bromance.
[00:03:50]
Well, turns out that's
by the end of his presidency,
Donald Trump couldn't stand Netanyahu.
He thought Netanyahu was disloyal
and ungrateful
for everything he had done for him.
By the time I talked to Trump
in April 2021, he was over Bibi.
[00:04:07]
I haven't spoken to him since.
I didn't talk to him.
That's right, Donald Trump said,
f him when it came to Benjamin Netanyahu.
And one more clip.
That's really important,
because Trump disclosed
[00:04:22]
that he did not believe that Netanyahu was
ever really serious about pursuing peace.
Let's watch.
What a lot of people don't know
is that actually in the first year of his
presidency, and Trump told me this, his
relationship with Palestinian President
[00:04:41]
- Mahmoud Abbas was very, very good.
- And it was almost like a father.
I mean, you know, he was so nice.
Couldn't have been nicer.
Now the world and me,
before I met with both of them,
[00:04:56]
I thought it was the exact opposite.
I thought the Palestinians were impossible
and the Israelis would do anything
to make peace and a deal.
I found that not to be true.
And I find it very interesting
and actually kind of surprising that, like
[00:05:15]
Obama and Bill Clinton, Trump also came to
the conclusion that Bibi was not sincere
about wanting peace with the Palestinians.
I think he just tapped us along.
They just tap, tap, tap.
I don't think Bibi ever wanted
to make peace.
[00:05:31]
I think Trump was right about that.
I think Obama was right about Netanyahu's
lack of concern with establishing
a more peaceful environment between
Palestinians and Israelis in that region.
Yeah, almost everybody who deals
with Netanyahu thinks he's disgusting,
one of the most immoral liars
that the world has seen in a long time.
[00:05:50]
So it's such a look, as a lot of our
world leaders are scar upon our nations,
like Trump was to America and Dick Cheney
was to America, and Bush and Erdogan,
Turkey, Netanyahu, Israel, Putin, Russia.
These are all stains on these countries.
[00:06:09]
Is Putin the bloodthirsty Putin really
a representative of the Russian people?
I hope not, and I don't think so at all.
Okay.
And I don't think Netanyahu is a
good representative of the Israeli people.
Everyone loves him for good reason.
All he cares about is himself.
He has no morality at all,
and he's willing to kill as many innocent
[00:06:27]
civilians as as any terrorist.
Let's be honest about it.
Let's be honest about it.
So he's now killed, what, seven times
as many civilian Palestinian civilians
as the leader of Hamas has.
So? So those are facts.
So. Oh, oops. It was an accident.
[00:06:44]
It was an accident
that I killed 10,000 civilians.
No one thinks it's an accident.
Only like people who are just obsessed
with defending Israel,
no matter what would say that no
rational human being would think,
thinks that all 10,000 civilians was just
an accident, just collateral damages.
[00:07:02]
We were getting the 13 Hamas guys.
Okay, so one,
I want to give credit to Barack Obama.
I often criticize him for not coming out
and making statements,
being comfortable in his home.
Oh, I'm an ex president.
Oh, I don't get to say anything, right.
No, no no no, you we could use
your moral clarity from time to time.
[00:07:22]
And here credit where credit is due.
Thank you.
You see that now everybody's
talking about what Obama said
and how even Obama is saying,
how many civilians are we going to kill?
See, we need that moral clarity
from time to time.
So thank you, President Obama.
[00:07:38]
Okay, now Trump breaks up
into two different things.
We covered that story before.
Trump is bitter at Netanyahu
for a lot of personal stuff, not backing
him on the 2020 election, which is absurd.
He thought he didn't thank him enough.
ET cetera.
And on that one, though,
that's only half absurd because Trump
[00:07:56]
did everything for Netanyahu.
- Yes.
- Very true.
And he moved our embassy from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem, which Netanyahu wanted.
He got out of the Iran peace deal,
which Netanyahu wanted.
He killed a top Iranian general.
Netanyahu is thrilled about that.
Trump almost started a war for Netanyahu,
and Netanyahu still was like,
[00:08:13]
nah, who cares?
Mi mi mi mi mi mi mi. Okay.
Ironically, him and Trump
are a good couple.
That way they don't care about any
other human being other than themselves.
But the substantive things
that Trump said, that's the second half.
Those are very real and very honest.
And you heard it for yourself right there.
[00:08:31]
Whether you're a Trump,
whether you love Trump or you hate Trump,
there's no question that the second half
of what he said is absolutely true.
Netanyahu has never wanted peace.
He profits from war,
he profits from death.
And he would rather just like Dick
Cheney here in America and on and on
[00:08:47]
with all these different warmongers
in these different countries.
They think war and innocent people being
murdered is helpful to my political
career, so they have no interest in peace.
Netanyahu has never wanted peace.
He's a monumental liar, and the Israeli
people should fire him immediately.
[00:09:05]
And for God's sake and for Israel's sake,
let alone the Palestinians, do peace.
Peace right away.
Two state solution instantly.
That way the world can heal
and the world can.
Finally, wouldn't it be amazing
if the world accepted Israel and said,
[00:09:23]
okay, you're not occupying people anymore.
You're not imprisoning
and oppressing people anymore?
- Welcome to the.
- Welcome to civilization and to.
And to the nations of the world that
that have agreed to certain moral rules.
And Israel, to this moment,
run by right wingers like Netanyahu, say,
[00:09:41]
no, we demand to oppress Palestinians,
I guess forever, literally forever.
We demand it.
And we and if anyone disagrees,
they're anti-Semitic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that stuff's
not working at all anymore in the world,
in America, anytime anybody says that now,
it's a laughing stock.
[00:09:59]
Total joke.
Oh, you're using that stupid old excuse.
There's.
And by the way, it's such a sick thing
to do because there's real anti-Semitism
in the world, and it's.
And it's a giant problem here in America.
And then now you want to use it
for political tricks so you can
kill more Palestinian civilians.
[00:10:14]
No, that's not going to fly.
Thanks for watching.
If you become a member,
you get to watch all this ad free.
Except for of course,
this ad still hit the join button below.
Now Playing (Clips)
Episode
Podcast
The Young Turks: November 6, 2023
Hosts: Cenk UygurAna Kasparian
- 17 minutes
- 10 minutes
- 8 minutes
- 7 minutes
- 4 minutes
- 7 minutes
- 15 minutes
- 23 minutes
- 10 minutes